


Ain’t Misbehavin'

by Madame de flammes (owlaholic68)



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Music, Band Fic, Canon Bisexual Character, Jazz Band AU, Meet-Cute, Multi, Self-Esteem Issues, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-11-04 23:59:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17908178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlaholic68/pseuds/Madame%20de%20flammes
Summary: There’s no jazz band on campus. Eight rowdy students are about to change that.Please give an enthusiastic round of applause for the swing ensemble of Vox Machina!





	1. Mood Indigo

There’s a woman at the window of Percy’s practice room.

He’s on the fourth floor of the music building.

Percy lowers his trumpet and stares at the dark-haired half-elven woman, who taps on the window with an innocent smile. On one hand, he shouldn’t just go around opening windows for mysterious ladies who are scaling buildings. On the other hand, it is kind of windy today and he’d hate to be responsible for this charming woman’s safety.

She taps again. With a sigh, Percy sets aside his instrument and undoes the latch on the window. The music building hasn’t been properly renovated since the seventies, and it takes him a second to figure out how to open the outdated mechanism.

“Thanks!” She brightly says as she clambers in. “Normally I’d just use my brother’s card to get in, but he needed it today to get into the cafeteria.”

“You’re not a music major or minor?” Percy asks, still internally reeling at the fact that he just let in some random lady who had climbed the building.

“No, dear, otherwise I wouldn’t be climbing the building to get into the practice rooms, now would I?” She challenges, which is fair. “What about you then, you’re a trumpet major?”

“No, actually,” Percy rubs the back of his neck. “I’m not a major or minor either, I just made myself a fake card that would scan in and register as one.”

The laugh that bursts out of this woman is radiant and light. “That’s wonderful!” She gasps between breathless chuckles. “I think we’d get along fabulously. My name’s Vex’ahlia, but please, just call me Vex.” She wipes brick dust and dirt from one of her hands and extends it.

“Percy,” he replies, and shakes her still grimy hand. Somehow, though, he doesn’t quite mind like he normally would. “So if you’re not a major, what are you doing practicing here? What do you play?”

Vex slips an instrument case off her shoulder. “I play trumpet – oh you do too!”

“Ah.” Percy pushes up his glasses. “I was about to ask why you couldn’t just practice at your home – but I understand now.” He takes his instrument off the second chair in the room and sits, waving a hand to the empty chair at his side. “You’re welcome to use my room if you’d like, I was about to wrap up in ten minutes.”

She shrugs and sits. “Sure thing. What are you playing?”

Surprisingly, they talk about music for another fifteen minutes, then play together for another thirty. Vex is a little rusty as she admits, since she hasn’t taken the instrument seriously for several years. But she has spirit and solid technique. It’s enjoyable – when’s the last time Percy had such musical compatibility with someone else?

The practice rooms don’t have any clocks, which is why it startles Percy when he looks at his watch and realizes that it’s ten minutes to one o’clock.

“Oh Gods,” he stands and starts hastily packing away his things. “I have class in ten minutes – I’ve got to go-” And he missed lunch too. With the time it’ll take him to run over to the engineering building, he’ll be lucky if he makes in time at all, no time to stop and grab food.

“Go, go!” Vex takes his music folder from the stand and shoves it into his hands as he runs out the door. “It was nice playing with you!”

“You too!” He yells over his shoulder as he sprints down the keycard-locked hallway of music major-only practice rooms. “Goodbye, Vex’ahlia!”

When he looks in the folder later, he finds a scrap of paper with a phone number written on it. Oh. Vex gave him her phone number.

* * *

It’s only one month into this class, and Vax’ildan swears that he will _never_ major in anything ever relating to geology.

“Take a geology class for fun, Vex said,” he grumbles to himself, far up in the corner of the lecture hall. Feet up on the chair in front of him, hiding his phone behind his hunky textbook. “It’ll be something new and different, she said. Learn about rocks and stuff, maybe you’ll _like_ rocks and stuff.”

 _“I_ like rocks,” somebody pipes up from next to him.

Vax whisper-screams and jumps. Damn it, _he’s_ supposed to be the one sneaking up on people, not the other way around!

“Sorry!” The same person squeaks. It’s an eager-looking half-elven woman with tawny red hair. She’s wearing a long flowing skirt and loose tie-dye blouse. From the jewelry and overall aesthetic, this puts her firmly in the “hippie” category of style. “I didn’t mean to startle you, I just – you look so familiar, have we had a class together before? I’m just – sorry, I thought I knew you – sorry.”

Can this lady _stop?_ Vax furrows his brow and crosses his arms. He would have remembered someone as annoyingly friendly. “No? I don’t take many earth science classes.”

“Oh, no, I think it was a business class – maybe Economics?”

“Ah.” Vax sits back. “That might’ve been with my sister then – we’re twins. She’s an Econ major.”

“Yes, yes! She was much less goth than you, that’s right! Thank you!” The woman seems pleased by this. Great. “My name’s Keyleth. I’m a junior. I’m taking this class because it’s part of my one of my majors – I’m in environmental science and business management. What about you?”

“What about me?”

Keyleth fiddles with a pen that has a fake flower glued to the end. “Um, what’s your name?”

“Vax.”

“Okay. Uh, what’s your major?”

He shrugs. “Haven’t decided yet. Definitely not geology.”

“Oh, well that just means that you have the freedom to take whatever classes you want so you can figure out! You’ll find your passion soon enough, I know it!”

Thankfully, the class starts and Vax doesn’t have to talk to this girl again. He just has to sit next to her for the lecture and ignore her disappointed look when he spends the whole class texting his sister instead of paying attention. Everything’s in the book and the professor puts up her notes online anyways, so what’s the point of coming except for the bullshit mandatory attendance policy?

 _How’d geo going?_ Vex had texted him. _I thought you said you were going to drop it._

 _Boring,_ he texts back. _Met a weird girl. Too late to drop and get refund._

Thankfully, it’s only an hour class, and then Vax is free! Free to go to his other classes that he only kind-of tolerates!

Keyleth follows him out of the classroom. “What do you have next?” She brightly asks, soul untainted by the drudgery that is learning about erosion. “I’m going to my saxophone ensemble next!”

“I have Abyssal now. Sorry, I’ve got to run over there now.” Technically half a lie, since Vax has Abyssal in an hour.

“Okay, Vax! See you later!”

“Yeah, bye, I guess.” And then Vax walks away.

* * *

Early morning was the best time to go to the gym. Pike rises early and throws on her workout clothing, packing a normal outfit in her bag and grabbing a container of her homemade breakfast granola and a banana.

It’s just past five o’clock in the morning when she gets to the campus gym, open 24 hours a day.

“Pike!” The man – no, goliath – behind the counter straightens as she enters. “Good mornin’, Pike!”

“Good morning, Grog!” She brightly answers, giving him her campus card to scan in. “Are you teaching that weight training class tonight?”

“I am!” He hands her back her card. “You going?”

The broad grin on her friend’s face is enough to convince Pike that the achiness she’ll feel the next morning will be totally worth it. “Of course I am! I wouldn’t miss one of your classes, Grog! I like that you always make sure it’s challenging for everybody but not, um, look down on me for being smaller.”

Grog frowns in confusion. “But – but I have to look down in order to see you, Pike. Is that – is that bad?”

“Oh, no, that’s fine,” she’s quick to reassure. “I’m sorry, I meant that some other people think that I can’t do things because of my size, and you always believe in me!”

“Oh. Well, that’s because you can do anything!” He waves her in, one massive hand tapping out a jaunty rhythm on the counter. “I will see you tonight, Pike. Have fun!”

“Grog, wait-” An idea strikes her. “You like music, right? Have you ever thought about joining one of the bands here?” It would be a great outlet for the man’s seemingly endless energy.

He sits on a stool and his giant shoulders slump. His left hand is still tapping out that steady rhythm. “Can’t. Need to be a student.”

“Oh, well, that’s true. Well, you can jam – you can play with me any time you want. We can find you some drums or something.”

“Thanks, Pike. You are so nice.”

“Well, you are too. Have a good day.” She makes her way to the main workout area with a last wave over her shoulder at Grog.

* * *

“Ugh.” Vex sprawls on the couch and flings her phone to her lap. Trinket whines and moves his paws out of the way. “Oh, sorry Trinket, dear.”

“What now?” Vax looks up from his notebook where words in Abyssal are scrawled in Vax’s careless shorthand.

“He hasn’t texted me!”

“What? Who hasn’t texted you?”

Vex fills her brother in on meeting Percy, brushing off his concerns over her climbing the side of the building to get into some random guy’s practice room. Like _he_ hadn’t climbed onto the science building’s roof in the middle of winter to rescue an injured bird that one time.

“That was like three hours ago. You – you have to be patient, Vex.”

She huffs. “I know. Still…”

“Just wait. Maybe he’s shy. Or in class and is a total nerd about texting. Or freaked out, you _did_ scale a building and climb into his practice room. Any normal person would be weirded out by that.”

“Maybe he didn’t think I was pretty enough.”

Vax whirls and slams his notebook shut. “Now why in the world would he think that?”

Vex shrugs and pouts. “Well, apparently _you’re_ the pretty one.”

“Okay. Stop. What?” Objectively speaking, that quite simply isn’t true. Everywhere the twins go, it’s always his sister that gets the most attention, always the one that exchanges winks and phone numbers for discounts and favors. Identical or not, Vex brings the charm.

“At least you are according to some guy in your art class who _totally_ has the hots for you.” Vex leans forward. “So, this dude came up to me today at lunch and thought I was you for a second – of course I squashed that pretty fast and he looked _disappointed,_ like he _really_ wanted to talk to you. Said he should have known because he would have recognized your ‘gorgeous face’ anywhere.” Vex rolls her eyes. “Like I’m not enough of a sweet treat for him – whatever. Didn’t catch his name, but he had great hair and was wearing the most obnoxious outfit – all gold and-”

“Purple,” Vax finishes, head against the table. “Yep, that’s Gilmore.”

Trinket whines for attention and Vex dutifully pets her behemoth of a dog. “Gilmore? Oh – oh Vax, is that the guy you went out for coffee with after class?”

“Yep.”

“Well, I thought you said that went great! Did that not go great?”

“No, it was wonderful.” Gilmore is wonderful, Vax doesn’t say, because he knows his warm face tells his sister everything she needs to know. “But…you know…”

“No, I don’t know. Was he already dating somebody or something? Is he secretly forty-five years old?”

Vax raises his head from the table. “No, nothing like that. It’s just, he’s got a double major and he knows what he wants to do with his life. He started his own side business and he has a job, and I…” He takes his hair down from its messy bun to give him an excuse to avoid Vex’s piercing gaze. “And you know me…”

“Yeah, I do know you, moron. You’re also super great and talented and clever. Just because he came into college knowing what he wanted doesn’t make him suddenly out of your league, Vax. If you ever say that you’re unworthy of a relationship just because you’re still undecided, then I will – I’ll steal your favorite boots and never give them back.”

His head whips up. “Vex!”

“I will,” she threatens.

“Fine. As long as you never say you’re not pretty.”

“Deal.”

Vax turns back to his homework. “And stop moaning about Percy, dear sister. If he’s worthy of you, he’ll come around. Just give him some time.”

Then he gets to work, banishing thoughts of anything else from his mind. Abyssal isn’t his favorite class and he’s certainly not going to major in it, but at least it’ll count for a Gen Ed credit, when he finally decides what he’s doing with his life.

 _When_ he decides, not _if._ As Vex said (and that weird girl from earlier too), he will find his thing. Eventually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title: Mood Indigo by Duke Ellington


	2. Take the A Train

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plot!

“Percy, are you even paying attention?”

Percy snaps his head up and shoves his phone into his pocket. “Yes, Pike, of course I am.”

“Really?” Pike’s whitish hair shifts as she cocks her head. “Because I just asked if you think we should just delete the whole document and fail out of this lab, and you just nodded and said yeah.”

“Oh.” Percy rubs the back of his neck. “Well, to be honest with you, I am rather distracted today. Something happened earlier while I was practicing…” At Pike’s nod to elaborate, he rolls out the story of meeting Vex. “And, well, I got her number,” he finishes. “And now I don’t quite know where to go from here.”

Pike is sitting back and sipping a thermos of tea. How somebody could look so energized while maintaining a full schedule of pre-med courses, tutoring, volunteer work, getting regular exercise, and having time for social activities, Percy has no idea and he almost doesn’t want to know. “Do you want to text her?”

“Yes? I’m just not certain of what to say, I suppose.”

“How about a simple ‘Hello, this is Percy’? Don’t try anything fancy and don’t be awkward about it.”

Percy, like he does so often, thinks. Pike is more experienced than him in the world of relationships. She’s also pragmatic and wouldn’t suggest something stupid. She always has his best interests at heart, and that’s why she’s such a great friend (and lab partner too).

“How about this,” he suggests. “We finish up this lab report for Chem, and then I text her at the end so it doesn’t distract us any further. I’ll say exactly what you just said and see where it goes from there.”

“That’s the spirit!” Pike beams. “Now, back to work!”

* * *

Vax swipes into the practice room hallway and closes the door behind him.

The individual rooms are soundproofed but not very well, and music still leaks out into the hall. As Vax passes the smaller rooms that only have chairs and music stands, the sound of a bopping string bass and a melodically bright voice catch his attention.

The song takes him a second to recognize, but it’s the distinctive lyrics, speaking of trains and Harlem and Sugar Hill, that makes him smile. He’s always had a soft spot for jazz, even though his main repertoire is classical. When Vax peeks through the small window of the door, he sees a gnome man perched on a stool plucking away at a large string bass and singing.

Oh, yeah, this guy. Vax has seen him around this building a lot, making it likely that he’s a music major of some sort. From what others have said, this guy – Scan, maybe, the name? – was a cool dude, supportive and positive of others’ performances.

Well, Vax doesn’t have time to sit here all day and creepily stare at some guy. He’s got his own work to do.

There’s a knock from behind Vax. He turns with a frown, because that sounded like the locked hallway door-

It’s Gilmore. Somehow, some fucking way, destiny has aligned itself so that Gilmore just so happened to be knocking on the door when Vax was in the hallway.

“Uh, hi Gilmore?” Vax cracks open the door, unsure if he should be letting Gilmore in. As far as he knew, Gilmore wasn’t a music major or minor and therefore _technically_ shouldn’t be allowed to use these practice rooms. _But_ Vax let his sister borrow his student ID card all the time, so what was the harm?

“Good afternoon, Vax.” Gilmore’s shoulder brushes Vax as he slips through the now fully-opened door. “To be quite frank, I was not expecting to see you here. I quite distinctly recall you saying you were an undecided major, not a musician.”

Vax fiddles with the corner of the loose strap of his backpack. “I’m a piano performance minor, actually. It – it’s silly, so I didn’t mention it.”

“Oh, well now, I think that’s wonderful!” Gilmore claps Vax’s back and his hand lingers. “If I had known, well – well, now we can play together sometime!”

“Play together – oh.” Gilmore has a long trombone case in his other hand. “I – Gilmore, I didn’t know you played trombone.”

Gilmore shrugs. “I guess we’re both men of mystery, eh? I’m really just an amateur here, though. Not taking any classes or in any of the ensembles. I was going to try to get into the symphony orchestra, but I unfortunately am not so experienced in classical repertoire.”

“You play jazz?” Vax leads them into an empty piano practice room, taking the bench seat while Gilmore takes the adjacent plastic chair. “I do too, from time to time.” Was that too eager? Or too dorky-sounding? Or maybe Vax’s implication that he really only plays classical things makes him sound too serious and intense? Oh Gods why is he still talking to Gilmore, the poor man must have better things to do with his day-

“Yes, dear, I _love_ jazz!” Gilmore leans forward and rests his elbows on the edge of the piano. “I never get to play, though! Do _you_ know that there isn’t a single jazz ensemble on campus open to non-majors? And the one that they _do_ have for music majors only takes five percent of the students that audition? It’s a quintet, very exclusive. I’d love to play more, but for now I must content myself with sneaking into practice rooms-”

“I’m starting a jazz band,” Vax blurts and immediately wants to shove his head into the piano. He is doing _no such thing, what the fuck is he saying right now?_ “With my sister and – and her friend who plays the trumpet too. We’re looking for more people. We’d love – I’d love for you to join.”

The look of unrestrained delight on Gilmore’s face makes the entire spontaneous plan worth it. “I’d love to! When do we start?”

Suddenly, the piano keys are super fascinating to Vax, who runs his fingers across them in a nervous pattern. “I just came up with the idea recently, so I still have to work out recruiting more people and finding practice space.”

“Well, I’d be thrilled to help. Here, let me give you my phone number so you can keep me updated.” Gilmore patiently waits until Vax holds out his phone to enter the number and hand it back. “I’d better actually start practicing now, especially since now I have a reason to! Vax, dear, I will see you later!”

Gilmore leaves. Vax unlocks his phone and types a frantic text:

_Help stubby I fucked up._

* * *

Vex ignores the judgmentally disappointed look the girl sitting next to her gives (Keyleth, maybe? Vax had mentioned a girl that shared a class with Vex) when her phone vibrates with two new messages. She flips it and hides it under her desk to read the messages. Her Environmental Law and Politics teacher is so absent-minded that there’s no chance of anyone really seeing or caring.

The first text is from Percy, and it makes her smile. He actually texted her! A full twenty-four hours late, but whatever. She can deal.

The second message is from her brother and she goes into panic mode.

 _OMG are you arrested?_ She types in a frantic reply.

The reply is almost instantaneous. _NO_

Whatever the situation is, it still sounds dire. Instead of wasting more time typing, Vex slips out of the classroom and calls Vax.

“Why would you jump to the assumption that I’d been arrested?” Vax whispers as a greeting.

“I don’t know, why did you send me such an ominous message?” She hisses in reply. “What happened?” She can hear distant music, so he’s probably in the music building.

“I ran into Gilmore-”

Vex suddenly regrets telling her brother that he should take a chance, because if Gilmore hurt her brother in any way… “Oh fuck what did Gilmore do? Do I need to track him down right now and exact revenge-”

“No!” Vax’s voice raises to almost a shout before it lowers again. “I need to you to start a jazz band with me!”

“What? Why?”

Vax’s exasperation is audible through the phone. “Because I told Gilmore that I was starting a band!”

_“What? Why?”_

“Because he’s cute and I wanted to make him happy, okay? He was sad that there wasn’t a jazz band for him to join, so I told him that I was doing one! Now are you going to help me or not?”

Vex sighs and tugs on the end of her braid. “Of course I am. So just stay calm, okay? We need to work on getting more people. A pianist, a trumpet player, and a – what does Gilmore play?”

“Trombone.”

“Well, that doesn’t make a band. We need other instruments, and more rhythm. A drummer, at least.”

“Doesn’t Percy play trumpet too?”

“Fine, two trumpet players. Great. Three brass instruments and you, excellent compositional balance.”

“Vex-”

“Right. Calm. We’ll figure it out, okay? I’ll ask Percy if he knows anybody. Now you’d better start practicing.”

Vax sighs and there’s a quiet note as he brushes the piano keys. “Gods, don’t remind me. I need to have that fugue memorized by next week, and it is _killing me._ Vex, if I’m found dead tonight, please tell the police that Mr. Johann Sebastian Bach’s fucking C-sharp minor fugue did it. Now you get back to class before you get in trouble.”

“In trouble? Who, me?” Vex grins to herself and hangs up.

* * *

Keyleth isn’t sure what she’s expecting out of the broody kid she’s started sitting next to in her Geology class. He keeps to himself, more obviously standoffish than his warmer sister. Seems bored and disinterested in class (and mostly spends time on his phone despite the no-technology rule), though his grades seem fine. Keyleth _might_ have peeked when they were handing the last test back, and Vax got a 95%. For someone who doesn’t care, at least he _is_ smart.

Vax is later than normal to class one day and he gets there after Keyleth. He trips over her saxophone case in the aisleway and curses, nimbly catching himself on the backs of the row of chairs in front of them.

“Sorry!” Keyleth says, expecting a glare or more unrepeatable words. But what she gets instead is a double-take at the instrument case and raised eyebrows.

“You’re a musician?” Vax sits and lets his bag thump to the ground. “What do you play?”

“Saxophone. I’m not very good, I’m in last chair in class, but I’ve been playing for probably four years now.”

Vax looks at the instrument, then at her. The saxophone. Keyleth. The instrument, then her, then down again. He runs a hand through his hair (longer than Keyleth’s!) and sighs, apparently coming to some sort of decision.

“Do you want to join a jazz band?”

“A band?” Keyleth perks up. Not at _all_ what she was expecting. “A real band? You want _me_ to join your band?” At Vax’s nod, she grins and claps her hands. “Yes, yes! Oh, I’m so excited! Nobody’s ever wanted me playing with them before!” Usually people subtly maneuver so as to _not_ have her in their ensembles. Nobody wants the last chair saxophonist messing up their work.

“Okay, great.” Vax seems intimidated by her excitement, which happens. “Uh, so we haven’t picked out any music yet, but you should at least start learning the blues scales.”

Keyleth’s already jotting that down in her notebook. “I will, I will! I promise I won’t let you guys down!”

 _That’ll show Raishan,_ she thinks, going about the rest of her day with a bright smile. _That’ll show her!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title: "Take the A Train" by Billy Strayhorn, made famous by Duke Ellington
> 
> Smooth Vax? No, useless flustered foot-in-his-mouth Vax! Give me a Vax who sees Gilmore look 1% sadder than normal and instantly says reckless nonsense to cheer him up!


	3. Chameleon

Vex is not a naturally nervous person. But she can’t help but bounce her leg under the table, flipping her phone over and over in her hands. It’s four o’clock. Percy said he got out of class at three-fifty, so shouldn’t he be here by now?

Check her phone again. Still four o’clock. Vex fiddles with a loose chunk of hair coming out of her braid and scans the student center café again. No sign of a distinctive shock of white hair – except, wait-

Vex immediately straightens out her shirt and sets down her phone, realizing it’s already too late to pretend like she just got here.

“Percy!” She waves him over to her table.

“Good afternoon, Vex.” He slips his messenger bag _(nerd)_ off his shoulder and sets it on the floor next to his chair. “My friend will be joining us shortly.”

“Oh, good.”

Percy clears his throat. “So, a jazz band?”

“Yeah.” She shrugs. “It was Vax’s idea.”

“Oh.” Percy checks his phone. A bright red flush is creeping up his neck and ears.

Vex grins and leans forward with one elbow on the table. “Percy, dear, how was class today?” Just because she wants to fluster him a little doesn’t mean she wants the conversation to be awkward.

“It was fine,” he replies. “I had a class on optics. It’s very interesting, and we’ve moved on to hands-on work now.” Percy tells her about his engineering classes and even though it’s not Vex’s preferred subject, it’s nice to just listen to him talk.

Lost in their own little world, it’s a surprise when someone interrupts them.

“Ah, hello, Percy…” A gnome woman with stark white hair takes the empty chair at the table (secretly siblings? Vex files that thought away). “I’m sorry I’m late!”

“It’s no problem. Pike, this is Vex. Vex, this is Pike. Vex is the one who plays trumpet.”

Pike nods. “Right. And your brother, then, it the pianist?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s nice to meet you, Pike. What do you play?”

She puts her hands on her hips. “Baritone saxophone! I know, it’s quite large in comparison to my stature, and sometimes I have to have help Grog carry it around.”

“Grog?”

“Oh, that’s right!” Pike snaps her fingers. “He’s a drummer, I think. Um, he’s not actually a student here, I don’t know if that’s an issue, and I also don’t think he knows how to read music.”

Vex waves a hand. This whole idea is probably going to end up being a crapshoot anyways, so what does it matter? “That’ll work fine, as long as he can keep a steady beat and, like…knows how play drums.”

“Oh, he does, he does! I’ll tell him all about it!” Pike looks at her watch and stands. “I need to go now, but Percy will text me whatever time you guys decide!” She waves and weaves through the crowd out of sight.

“Pre-Med major,” Percy explains when he sees Vex’s curious look. “And she does volunteer work, _and_ she has a job at the tutoring center.”

“Wow.” Vex sits back in her chair. “How long have you known her?”

“Just this semester. We have our Chem lab together.” Percy rubs the back of his neck, a painfully obvious nervous tick. He’s probably horrendous at poker. Or crazy good, because of math or something. “I decided to be her lab partner because all of the other Chem majors, or mechanical engineering majors, are either weirdly competitive, total dudebros, or kind of desperate geeks.” He sighs. “Maybe that makes me sound really stuck-up.”

To be honest, Vex thinks it makes him sound dreadfully lonely. Most of her classmates are friendly and willing to lend a helping hand.

“I’ve known a lot of stuck-up pricks in my life, and I don’t think you’re one of them.” Vex lowers her eyes. Wow, way to sound cliché, Vex! “Sometimes people just suck.”

“I guess.” He glances up at her, then back down.

“Well, I should really get going-”

“Will you go out to dinner with me?” Percy blurts. He shoots to his feet. “Sorry, that was forward-”

“Yeah!” Vex stands too. “Right now?” As soon as she says it, she feels her face fall. “Oh, sorry, I actually can’t go right now. I promised Vax I would help him study tonight for a big test.” What that would really entail would be trying to convince him to study when all he wants to do is either talk about the band or complain about the class he’s studying for.

“That’s quite alright.” Percy is still smiling, so she must not have crushed his hopes and dreams too dramatically. “Bros before hoes, I understand.”

Vex would say that she normally has a refined laugh, more of a light chuckle. But it’s a serious point in Percy’s favor that his deadpan joke makes Vex squeal a laugh that turns into an undignified snort.

“Oh my God, please _never_ say that again,” she says when she’s regained her breath. Percy is chuckling, face so red it looks like the poor boy got a third-degree sunburn. “Or at least if you do, please record it. Percy, dear, I really do need to go, but I will _definitely_ take a raincheck on that dinner date.”

“I’ll hold you to that. See you Wednesday night, Vex.” With a wave, he leaves.

Vex watches him go. Try as she might, she can’t wipe the dopey smile from her face. Damn, Percy.

* * *

“This is the room.” Pike stops in front of the small tucked-away ensemble rehearsal room. It’s just past five o’clock on a Wednesday night.

“Pike, are you sure about this?” Grog asks. He looks over her at the room, which is mostly silent with a few muffled voices filtering out through the door. “I’m not so good with the reading, and I’ve never played with people before…”

Pike reaches up and pats his arm. “Grog, you’ll do great. You just need to believe in yourself and be confident. Besides, these people are nice, I think. We need a drummer, Grog. We need _you.”_

He puffs out his chest and grins. Her saxophone case looks tiny in his hands, though it dwarfs her. “Thanks Pike! Let’s go!”

Vex and the man who must be her identical twin, Vax, look up as they enter. Sitting next to each other are a woman with tawny red hair who is warming up a saxophone, and a glorious-looking man assembling a trombone.

“Hi, Pike!” Vex greets them, then cranes her neck to look up at Grog. “And, uh, you must be Grog! We’re just waiting on Percy-”

As if on cue, Percy bursts in the door. “Sorry I’m late!”

“Excellent!” Vex props one hand on her hip. “We should get started warming up and then practice the blues scales. Me and Vax have picked out a couple of songs that we might want to play, but we’re open to suggestions.”

They all stare at each other after Vex finishes speaking. Unlike an orchestra, there’s no bandmaster, and nobody’s quite sure of who’s in charge.

After a few seconds of painfully awkward silence, Grog clears his throat and hands Pike her instrument case. Percy sets up his music stand and Vex helpfully shows Grog the drum set that came with the room.

Naturally, Keyleth of all people (the other saxophone player – and quite sweet, as Pike has found) has surprisingly taken the lead in helping everyone warm up. They run through some scales and chord progressions, going over the theory more than anything else.

Twenty minutes in, Pike gauges the status of everyone involved. She herself is having quite a lot of fun. This break from her usual studies is relaxing. Next to her, Keyleth seems nervous but is slowly becoming at ease too. Percy and Vex are not-so-subtly flirting with each other, but they both seem to be having fun. Speaking of flirting, Gilmore will _not_ stop stealing glances at Vax, so obviously there’s something there. Vax has the look of someone who has stopped regretting all of his life decisions.

And Grog looks bored. Which is fair, because he hasn’t had much to do in the last twenty minutes.

“Hey, guys, how about we practice soloing?” Pike suggests. “Grog, you need to keep us on beat, and you should do a solo too.”

“Okay.” He looks unsure at his drumsticks. Pike gives him a thumbs up and taps out a steady beat on her music stand. He starts nodding along, then his hands move too, then he starts.

Pike has never actually heard Grog play before this moment, and there was a small part of her that was worried she’d read him wrong. But when he starts, it sounds like…

Like a professional drummer. Like Grog has done this before. Steady and simple with a few rhythmic accents. He looks up and nods at Pike with a bright grin. Pike takes that cue and nods at Vax, who jumps in to provide some more rhythm and chord progressions.

It feels like something’s missing. A drummer and a pianist are a meager rhythm section. What they really need is-

Ironically, Pike’s thoughts are interrupted by someone dramatically throwing open the door to the practice room. A short figure carrying an instrument case almost double his size bursts in.

“Hey guys!” The man declares, effectively halting all music currently in process. “I heard there was a jazz band going on?”

Pike recovers from the shock first. Shocked to see her old high school friend that she had _sworn_ didn’t go here. Surprised, of course, to have him burst into the room so suddenly. She clears her throat.

“Scanlan?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title: "Chameleon" by Herbie Hancock.


	4. Someone to Watch Over Me

“Pike!”

“Scanlan!”

“Pike!”

“Scanlan!”

“What the hell is going on?” Grog stands and interrupts his friend’s tender reunion with her other friend. There’s a small nugget of jealousy that is quickly squashed by happiness at seeing his best friend so excited. If Pike is happy, he’s happy. The more people that are around to make her happy, the happier she will be, and that’s great.

Pike jumps off her chair, leaving her saxophone in its stand, and grabs Scanlan’s hand, towing him over to the rest of the group. “This is my high school friend Scanlan. Scan, I thought you went to that out-of-state school! Otherwise, _of course_ I would have contacted you about this!”

The dashing gnome waves his hand. “I transferred this semester. Haven’t had a chance to join any ensembles yet. Are you guys still taking people?”

“Yeah.” Grog looks over at the rest of the group. From what he knows of jazz ensembles, they could use somebody else. “I’m Grog.”

“Nice to meet you, Grog.” Scanlan drags over his instrument case, which is almost as tall as Grog. He stands on tiptoe to give him a handshake, then introductions are made with the rest of the group.

Scanlan plays string bass. “And I sing,” he mentions. “But I don’t know what we’re playing, if that will be relevant.”

Vex shrugs and looks at her brother. _(Vax plays piano,_ Grog repeats to himself, still trying to remember names in such a large group. _Vex plays trumpet. Vex has a braid, Vax doesn’t. Vex smiles and Vax is kind of grumpy.)_ “We haven’t really picked anything for sure yet. Only a couple of ideas.”

“I saw you the other day in the practice rooms doing _Take the A Train,”_ Vax says. “We could do that one for sure, and you could sing.” He looks at the others. “Is that good with you guys?”

Grog nods even though he has never heard of any of these songs. They toss out some more, arguing over which ones will work and which ones won’t. “In a Sentimental Mood” versus “Mood Indigo”, “Sing Sing Sing” versus “In the Mood”, etcetera. Grog just shrugs whenever someone asks him.

In the end, they decide upon five songs to learn:

“Take the A Train”. With its exciting melody and addition of Scanlan’s smooth singing, this is a classic hit. Someone also points out that Pike will do great at the baritone sax parts that normally fall flat in other performances.

“Sing, Sing, Sing”. They all look at Grog when they choose this to make sure he agrees, because apparently there’s the opportunity for a sick drum solo. He agrees because Pike gives him a thumbs-up, so that means it’s good.

“Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”. Percy and Vex seem particularly excited at this. Grog doesn’t know the song, but he likes the way the name sounds. It’s also going to be their primary soloing piece.

“In a Sentimental Mood”. Their only ballad pick, with the expectation that Gilmore and Percy will share the solo instead of having Keyleth do it. This is because Keyleth is going to need to spend a lot of practice time on:

“Take Five.” A classic Dave Brubeck piece-

“We can’t do Take Five,” Keyleth interrupts. She’s fiddling with the strap of her saxophone. “Chroma’s doing it. I know, because none of them will shut up about how _challenging_ but _also easy_ it is.”

Vax _(the piano one is Vax)_ curses and crosses his arms. “And the last thing we want to do is seem like we’re copying them. Damn it.”

“Is there another fun one you want to do?” Grog asks. “Any other ones with cool piano stuff?” Most of the jazz ones treated piano like a rhythm instrument, so they were going to pick one with a sweet-ass piano part.

Vax winces and looks at Grog, then at Keyleth. “Well, there’s another Brubeck one we could do…”

His sister catches his gaze and raises an eyebrow. She also looks at Keyleth and Grog.

“What?” Grog is getting weirded out by these weird looks. Like Vax isn’t sure he can do this song he’s thinking of.

“Well…” Vax twirls a lock of his long dark hair. “It’s called Blue Rondo A La Turk. It’s quite a big step up from Take Five, is all.”

Percy and Scanlan both suck in a surprised breath at the title.

“We could try it,” Scanlan offers. “If we pull it off, it would be _really_ cool.”

“Okay, if everyone else agrees,” Vax says. “We can try it for now. If it ends up being above our level and we need to drop it, we can pick something else.”

The rest of the session is planning their next practice meetup and coordinating a person to go to the university libraries to copy the sheet music. Grog tunes it out and only rises when it’s time to help Pike pack up her instrument and carry it out. Grog helpfully takes Scanlan’s too, swinging the large string bass case over his shoulder with ease.

“Where to?” He asks with a jovial grin, balancing the baritone sax case in the crook of his arm.

“I just leave mine in the lockers downstairs,” Scanlan says. “Easier that way.”

They stow that first, and Scanlan bids them a good night, giving Pike a quick hug and Grog a pat on the arm before jovially walking away.

“He’s a good guy,” Pike says when they get on their way. Grog shrugs. If she says so, she’s probably right, as he’s learned.

“He’s nice.”

The night is starting to get cold. Grog doesn’t feel it much, but Pike puts on a coat and hat when they go outside. They’ve been playing for long enough that it’s completely dark, the clouds obscuring what little moonlight was left. They pass from streetlight to streetlight in silence.

“Thank you, Pike.”

“You’re welcome, Grog, but what are you thanking me for?”

He slows down so she can more easily match his speed. “It was fun. Tonight was fun and I liked it. Thanks for asking me to do it.”

She smiles up at him. “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, Grog. I did too.” They reach her building. It’s too late for Grog to get in without swiping in with his nonexistent student card, so he hands over her instrument. “I’ll send you links to the songs we picked so you can listen to them and learn them that way. You have a good night, Grog.”

“You too!”

A good night. It _has_ been a good night. Grog jogs back home with a rare smile on his face.

* * *

“So, here’s the good news and the bad news.” Allura, the president of the campus GSA, addresses the rest of the Winter Pride Prom council.

Gilmore, worried at his friend’s grave tone, looks askance at Sherri, the club’s treasurer. “The good news first, then?”

“Catering gave us a quote and it’s well within our budget. We can even afford to have a little bit more desserts, and they _think_ they can whip us up something art deco to go with our jazzy theme.”

“That’s good,” Sherri says, noting the figure that Allura says. Their budget as a club is very limited, and this large popular event will draw out most of their funds.

Allura rests her chin in her hand. “Bad news: Chroma Quintet got back to me, _finally,_ and they want…compensation to play at the event.”

“Compensation?” Sherri protests. Gilmore frowns and says nothing. “But – but they’re a campus group too! How much are they asking?”

Allura sighs. “Four hundred dollars.” Her shoulders slump. “I know, I know. Something about them being a _professional_ ensemble that was very _busy_ and had _other engagements._ It’s crap and we’re just straight-up not going to be able to afford it. I _know_ everybody had their hopes for live music, but we’re going to have to live without it, I guess.”

“Well,” Gilmore pipes up, suddenly getting a very good and probably stupid idea. “There’s another option, you know. They aren’t the only jazz band on campus.”

Sherri raises an eyebrow, her eyes curious behind her thick glasses. “They’re not? I thought they were.”

“They _were,_ but they aren’t anymore!” Gilmore grins. “Friends, I have very recently joined an ensemble myself. We won’t be as polished and we won’t have as much repertoire prepared, but we can at least liven the party and fulfill our promise for live music.”

The smile has returned to Allura’s face. “Really? You guys would play for us?”

“Of course, of course! We’d be happy to! Well, I’ll have to ask everyone, but pretty much half of them have attended GSA events before so I’m _sure_ they’ll be on board! For free, and we can do maybe max thirty minutes, perhaps more if we stretch out solos.”

Sherri nods, her mass of curly hair bobbing up and down with the excited motion. “That’ll be just fine! What’s the name of your band?”

“Uh.” Gilmore’s grin becomes strained. “We haven’t decided yet. I’ll get back to you on that.”

“Not to worry.” Allura waves away his concern and starts typing on her laptop. “Oh, this is going to be the most _satisfying_ passive-aggressive email I’ve ever written. _Dear Thordak, I’m afraid our group will have to turn down your generous offer, as we have made arrangements with a different ensemble that is better suited to our thematic requirements. I appreciate your prompt reply_ (“A whole two weeks,” Allura mutters under her breath) _and wish your group the best with their other endeavors. Sincerely, Allura._ And…send!”

Gilmore continues smiling for the rest of the meeting right until they get done, at which time he scrambles for his phone and frantically messages the group chat to inform them of the sudden plans.

Three weeks to practice and polish enough songs to perform in public. _And_ to come up with a fitting name.

Will it be enough time? It has to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title: "Someone to Watch Over Me" written by George and Ira Gershwin, popularized by Ella Fitzgerald.
> 
> Jazz songs picked through a combination of ones that I know firsthand are fun to play (Take the A Train, Take Five) and songs that sound really cool (Mercy Mercy Mercy, etc.) and lastly, songs that my high school jazz band tried to play but were too difficult to learn (Blue Rondo, if only we hadn't tried to play you the year after our best sax player graduated...)


	5. Three to Get Ready

Halfway up the gritty brick wall of the music building, Vex pauses to take a breather. She rolls her shoulder to shift her trumpet case on her back. The cold late October wind chips away at her fingertips, exposed from the fingerless brown leather gloves she’s wearing.

She starts up again, keeping her eye on the row of windows that are now one floor up. Did Percy say he was in the fourth from the right or the fifth? Her phone buzzes in her back pocket but she dares not let go of the wall to grab it.

He said the fourth. Probably. It’s much harder to go laterally on the wall than it is to go vertically, so she’ll just have to take her chances. Vex blindly reaches up and knocks on the window as she heaves herself up the rest of the way to rest her forearms on the narrow sill.

The person staring at her in shock from inside the room is not Percy. That silky tumble of red hair could only to belong Keyleth, who is holding her saxophone in a loose grip. Her green eyes are open wide in disbelief.

Vex taps again. “Hey, Keyleth! Can you let me in?” Her left foot slips and she hurriedly repositions so she doesn’t fall. For all the times she’s nagged Vax about climbing buildings, she is more than happy to take the same risks herself.

“Oh my God!” Keyleth throws open the window and frantically helps Vex climb into the room. “What are you _doing,_ Vex?”

“Oh, you know.” Vex shrugs. “I need to practice.”

“Yeah. But why – you were climbing – you know you can just text one of us if you want to get in, Vex, right?”

“Yeah, but I need to keep my edge somehow. Oh, that’s right!” Vex pulls out her phone to see fifteen missed texts from Percy, all frantically asking where she is and if he needs to call 911. She responds that she’s still alive and hanging out with Keyleth, and that she’ll be a little while. “So what’re you playing, Keyleth?”

Keyleth sits and quickly shuts her folder. “Oh, you know, just some scales and such for class.”

Something about her suspicious nervousness changes Vex’s mind. She was just going to strike up a conversation and then go see Percy in a few minutes, but now she _really_ wants to know what Keyleth was playing. To be completely honest, the last night in practice, Vex noticed that Keyleth isn’t exactly a good player. But she has known enough musicians in her life to be able to sense that it’s not for lack of practice.

“Do you want to practice some jazz stuff together?” She proposes, leaning against the wall as there was only one chair. “Since Gilmore signed us up for a gig already, which is cool but unexpected, we should really make sure we get at least a couple of songs really down pat.”

“Uh, ok.” She scoots her folder over to make room for Vex’s music on the stand. “How about Take the A Train?”

With only the two of them, the music sounds awkward. Halfway through a phrase, Keyleth flubs a note. She stops playing and curses, glaring at the sheet music like it’s personally offended her. Unexpectedly playing solo now, Vex fumbles to a stop.

“Want to start from the top again?” She proposes. They didn’t make it far enough in to get to a stopping point.

“Ok.” Keyleth counts them off and they start again, but only get a few measures further before Keyleth stops again.

“Sorry, that was an easy one,” she apologizes, marking the problem note on her paper. “I shouldn’t have messed that up, I’m sorry Vex.”

Vex waves a hand, used to her peers simply continuing to play when they mess up. “Don’t worry about it. We got farther that time.”

“Only a few notes farther,” Keyleth grumbles. “At this rate, it’ll take me months to learn this song.”

“No it won’t. You’re – you’re smart, Keyleth.”

“Thanks, but I’m in last chair in class. I don’t think I’m actually going to get anything learned well enough to play with you guys. I know your brother asked me to join, but he didn’t know how much I suck-”

Vex sets her instrument to the side. “Hey, you shut the fuck up with that self-deprecating talk. The last thing I want to hear is you putting yourself down, Keyleth.” She puts a hand on her hip. “How did you get into the school orchestra? You have to audition, and I know from Gilmore that they don’t take just anybody.”

Keyleth rubs the back of her neck, now firmly avoiding Vex’s gaze. “I was able to send in my audition pre-recorded, and I’ve done well enough on the recorded tests and theory exams that I’m still passing the class.” She sighs. “But when it comes time to actually play in class, it never comes out right and I always mess up so bad.”

“That just sounds like a problem with your nerves, dear. And in your head.”

“But-”

Vex holds up a hand. “No buts. We’re going to work on this. You – you do realize that part of jazz involves doing solos, darling? So how about you start from the beginning of the song and I’ll be your audience.” She puts up her index finger. “The only rule is that you can’t stop. No matter how many notes you miss. If a whole bar turns out like mush, which happens to even me sometimes, just move on. Skip ahead to the next measure and keep going.”

“O-Okay.” Keyleth raises her sax and side-eyes Vex, who nods for her to begin. She takes a deep breath and starts playing.

If Vex were to be perfectly honest, it sounds pretty bad. The beginning part they’ve done a couple times now is okay, the middle gets a little lost, but finally Keyleth makes it to the halfway point where Scanlan would come in. Vex has been watching her shoulders slowly relax, and in her momentum Keyleth skips the few bars of rest to jump back in again.

As the opening melody comes back around, Vex is quietly impressed. This actually sounds…decent. Not perfect, especially since Vex isn’t sure that Keyleth’s even gotten this far in the song before, but those are easy things to fix. Spots where she shouldn’t have taken breaths, spots where a quick scale stutters in the middle, spots where Keyleth forgets the key signature.

But she gets to the end with a flourish. Vex claps and whistles.

Keyleth wipes away a few tears but she’s also smiling. “That sucked,” she says. “But I did get to the end, I guess.”

“There you go!” Vex claps one last time. “And that just proves you can do it! Now you realize that the whole thing didn’t suck, you just had a couple of hard parts.”

“Vex, can you – can I ask you a favor?”

“Sure, ask away.”

Keyleth rubs one of the shiny brass keys of her saxophone. “I’ve got a chair test in a few days, and I – I don’t think I can spend another month in last chair without quitting. Can I – would you mind if I played the passage for you?”

“Sure!”

They’re interrupted by a knock at the door. Percy pokes his head in.

“Did I just hear you guys playing?” He asks.

“Yeah, Keyleth was just running through her part with me, dear.” Vex looks at her for permission. “Do you want to sit with us? She was going to play something for a chair test.”

Percy leans against the wall with Vex. Keyleth seems doubly nervous now but Vex gives her a thumbs-up and a wave to begin playing.

“Remember what I said,” she says. “I will whack you with my scarf if you stop playing.”

Keyleth nods and plays through. It’s a difficult passage, as all test portions are, with arpeggios and scales intermixed throughout a soaring melody. This time, her confidence is bolstered and she makes it to the end without any major pitfalls.

Percy claps just as loud as Vex. “Your guys’ part is way more difficult than ours,” he comments. “That sounded good, Keyleth. You just have to play like that in the test.”

“Especially since you know now that you _can,”_ Vex stresses. She hasn’t known Keyleth for too long, but there’s still a warm glow of pride as she sees her new friend looking so confident.

“Thanks guys.” Keyleth goes to put the music away and her smile fades a little. “There is still one piece that I still suck at – uh, I mean that is still way harder than other things I’m playing.” She winces. “I can’t play _Blue Rondo A La Turk,_ Vex. I’m sorry, you’re going to have to tell Vax-”

Vex chuckles. “Hah, he can’t play it either.”

Percy turns sharply to look at her. Keyleth scrunches her eyebrows in confusion. “He can’t?”

“Hell no.” Vex crosses her arms. “He tried to last year but kept getting frustrated. He abruptly stopped mentioning it, so I’m assuming he gave up. He probably only suggested it so that someone else would say they can’t play it so he would have time to pick something else.” She leans forward and looks into Keyleth’s eyes, summoning all of the gravity in the air into her words. “You absolutely cannot tell him that it’s too hard, Keyleth. He needs to learn that he can’t just give up on something because it’s difficult. You need to learn that piece, and you need to walk into practice and blow him the hell out of the water.”

Keyleth swallows hard. “I will. I promise.”

“Great!” Vex claps her hands once. “Now, Percy and I had better leave you to your work. We’ve got our own stuff to practice, don’t we dear?”

Percy, predictably, blushes at the _dear_ part of her sentence. “Ah, yes we do.” He follows her out of the room. But instead of going back into his own practice room, he catches her arm in the hallway. “Ah, Vex, I…” He trails off.

“Yes, Percy?” Vex’s heart flutters at the way he looks at her. She hasn’t known him long either, but she has noticed that sometimes he gets abruptly intense. And then suddenly he reverts to being shy and quiet again.

“Vex, that was simultaneously the most considerate and also the hottest thing I have seen somebody do.” He squeezes her arm briefly. “You’re a good person.”

“What is all this about, Percy?” Vex is both confused and flattered. She’s found herself unused to attention that is not directly flirtatious.

He smiles and lets go. “Nothing, really. It just came to mind.”

Vex grabs his hand as he turns to leave. “Percy, I-” She falters. “Thank you.”

With one last smile behind her, Vex releases his hand and walks down the hallway. She doesn’t look back to see Percy grin like a doofus, his eyes soft and affectionate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title: "Three to Get Ready" by Dave Brubeck, from the same album as "Blue Rondo A La Turk" (the album was called "Time Out" and the theme was odd time signatures).


	6. Cannonball

“Vax’ildan, I forget, have you played any Bartok before?”

Professor Uriel is the only person who calls Vax by his full first name. Head of the music department and also a private piano instructor, he carries an air of authority at all times.

“Yeah, I’ve done some of his _Romanian Dances_ and a couple pieces from _Mikrokosmos,”_ Vax replies, not letting his teacher’s formality weigh upon him. He puts his feet up on a stool and rests his elbows on the edge of the piano, the keys digging into his forearms as Uriel searches through his cluttered shelves in search of a new piece to give his student.

“How about Debussy-”

“I did a _Nocturne_ last semester.”

Uriel throws a stack of music books to one side with a frown. “Khachaturian? Wait, don’t tell me, we did the sonatina last year. Well, I can find a Handel to replace your Bach, but we need something decently sized to replace your Beethoven, and I’d really prefer for you to do something more modern.”

Vax patiently waits while Uriel sorts through books and papers.

“Ah, this might work.” Uriel turns with a grin and Vax takes his feet off the stool so his teacher can sit. “You have not played Gershwin. This I know for a fact.”

“No, I haven’t played anything by Gershwin.” Vax quirks an eyebrow. “I thought he only did popular music.”

“He _mostly_ did popular music and musicals,” Uriel corrects. “But he has some classical repertoire as well. It mostly sticks with his contemporary jazz rhythms but with a bit of a punch. I believe you will enjoy this very much, Vax’ildan. I hear you are playing jazz now.”

Vax sits up straighter. “Ah, yes. That’s correct. Um, how did you hear about that?” They hadn’t publicly announced the existence of their group to anyone.

Uriel shoots him a grin. “My wife handles ensemble practice room scheduling. Now, take this.” He hands over a copy of sheet music. “Gershwin’s _Three Preludes._ Short enough that we will have to find something else to boost your repertoire, but in the meantime, I believe you have enough on your plate. This will be a challenging break from your usual work. Also, nobody in this department has played it, at least not for decades. Other students,” he is weighing his words carefully, “they are not so interested in interesting pieces. Fast and flashy, big name things that will sound good on paper, that is all they like to play. It can get boring, both for a performer and for a teacher. But you enjoy interesting things, Vax’ildan, and you will enjoy this. First Prelude is ragtime, second one is broody, and the third is very rowdy. Focus on the first for now.” He glances at the antique clock on his desk. “Now go before you are late for other classes.”

“Okay.” Vax slips the sheet music into his binder. He’ll take a look at it later when he has time; he trusts his instructor to know what music will suit his tastes. He throws his backpack over one shoulder and shoves his hat and scarf in his arm that is holding his binder.

He shoulders open the door and fast-walks down the hallway where the music teachers’ offices are. He waits for the elevator as it makes its way up to the seventh floor, then slips into the rickety old contraption and presses the button for the first floor.

The doors close and the elevator begins its descent. Vax leans against the wall corner and peeks at his new sheet music to pass the time. He passes the sixth floor, then there’s a ding as it stops at the fifth. There’s usually only one working elevator at a time in this building, so this is not a surprise.

He doesn’t look up when two people enter the elevator with him, too focused on skimming. Did Uriel just assign him something with double octaves? With all the shit his left hand is supposed to be doing in the song? And all this chord and rhythmic nonsense on top of that? Vax, distantly, does notice out of the corners of his eyes that both people that have just entered have for some reason decided to stand _way_ too close to him, essentially boxing Vax in the corner.

If there’s anything he hates, it’s feeling trapped. Vax looks up with a stand-offish glare and internally jumps to see his piano seminar student-colleague Thordak looming over him.

“Good afternoon, Vax.” Thordak doesn’t back off. He leans against the wall, shortening his loom to a mere five inches. Four inches if you didn’t count his rowdy shock of bright red hair. Sometimes Vax really hates being on the short side for a half-elf.

“Hi.” He crosses his arms over his chest, his binder pressed up against the front of his leather jacket. Now that he’s looking at them, he recognizes the stockier form of Brimsycthe on his other side blocking his escape out of the elevator. Brimsycthe nods at Vax but doesn’t smile. He’s got one hand on the top of his trombone case.

Meanwhile, Thordak is smiling altogether too much. “Did Professor Uriel give you a new piece?” He asks, all false cheer and innocent curiosity. “I thought you’d never finally _finish_ that Bach piece. It took you forever to get it memorized!”

Vax nods and grimaces. He’s not quite sure what to say to that implied insult. He drops his gaze and stares at the floor, very dearly wishing he’d taken the stairs instead so he didn’t have to interact with someone who seemed to go out of their way to initiate a rivalry with him. No one else in the piano department was as dedicated to tearing others down like Thordak was. Constantly giving “constructive criticism” during Friday seminars, always mentioning how his pieces were just a _little_ bit harder than Vax’s, muttering about his playing _just_ within his hearing range, and so on. Vax was too thick-skinned to take it personally, but it was so damn _annoying._ Plus bad for overall department morale, since some of the newer kids actually listened and took his comments to heart.

The elevator passes the fourth floor. Vax shuffles his feet and lets the silence continue.

There’s a creaking rumble as the elevator stops at the third floor.

“Vax!” A warmly familiar voice calls his name as the doors open.

Vax’s head shoots up and he instinctively grins at the sound. “Gilmore! It’s good to see you!” He shoulders past Brimsycthe to greet his friend as he enters.

Gilmore, because it’s the lovely Gilmore, picks up on the tension immediately. He rests his trombone case on the ground and yanks Vax into a hug. “Everything okay?” He whispers, Vax’s curtain of hair obscuring their conversation from the other occupants of his elevator.

“They are now,” Vax quietly responds. He squeezes Gilmore and pulls away from the hug. His spirits are lifted and, giddy with the excitement of this chance encounter, he keeps one arm around Gilmore’s shoulder. “What are you doing here, Gilmore?”

“Practicing with Percy. Doing improv stuff mostly.” Gilmore leans into Vax. “Would you like to have lunch with me, Vax? I’ve got some time before my next class.”

“Of course. I always have time for you, Gilmore.”

The elevator has _finally_ reached the first floor. Vax wasn’t sure how long he could keep using Gilmore as an excuse to ignore Thordak. He lets the other two leave first and he and Gilmore follow behind, hanging back a little.

“So, what was all that about?”

Vax shrugs and fusses with putting his hat on. “Thordak. He and Brimsycthe are part of the Chroma Quintet, and they make it their lives to make sure _everyone_ knows. He just bugs me, is all.”

“Hm.” Gilmore frowns and there’s a glimmer of protectiveness and anger in the warm depth of his eyes. “Well if he bothers you too much, Vax, you just let me know.”

Vax nods and pulls Gilmore into another hug. He’s not sure where this sudden clinginess is coming from, but he’s not one to fight it. A rare burst of sentimentality urges him to press a kiss to Gilmore’s cheek before they part. His heart twists and turns like it doesn’t know if what Vax did felt very right or very scary.

“Let’s go get lunch,” he says instead of worrying further. “I’m starving and there’s nothing I would love more than for you to tell me about your day.”

“Of course.” Gilmore keeps one arm around Vax’s waist as they walk. “Anything for you, Vax.”

* * *

“The fuck?”

Keyleth turns at Kashaw’s startled exclamation. Her fourth-chair buddy is staring at the piece of paper that tells him the results of his chair test. Keyleth takes her own paper from the teacher absent-mindedly. “What’s wrong, Kash?”

“Fifth chair?” He shows her the paper. “What the hell? How am I _last_ chair now? What are you?”

Before Keyleth can even look at her results, the player next to him exclaims: “I’m _fourth chair?”_

Oh my _Gods._ That means that – that Keyleth-

Her paper shows that she got a 97% score on the test. Her hand flies to her mouth. She’s _second_ chair!

“You’re _second chair?”_ Kash screeches, drawing an annoyed look from the director. “What the _fuck, Keyleth?”_

She tries to put on a neutral face, though she can still feel her bright smile. “Oh, I practiced a lot this week. Um, excuse me. We’d better switch into our new spots.”

Everyone except Raishan stands up and shifts one chair down. Kerreck, now third chair, is the only one who still seems happy. The gruff senior player claps her on the back as she sits.

“Great job, Keyleth!” He says, still jovial. “This passage was really rough this time. Guess we’ll be stand buddies now!”

“Yeah!” Keyleth puts her music next to his, secretly glad that she doesn’t have to share with Raishan, who is sitting on her other side.

“Yes, nice job,” speak-of-the-devil says in a tone that implies she doesn’t think it was a nice job at all. She tosses her chin and flips her wavy bright green hair over one shoulder. “We’ll just have to see how long this lasts.”

A spike of anxiety curls in Keyleth’s gut, but she tunes out the negative voice that agrees, that whispers _this was just a fluke, you’re not actually that good._ She mentally borrows Vex’s confident and flippant smile, of the way that she tilts her head just so to throw on a cool veneer.

“It’ll probably just last a week until the next chair test, then I’ll be in first chair,” Keyleth says.

Kerreck chuckles. “I’d better start practicing so I can get second chair back,” he adds.

Raishan says nothing and turns away. Keyleth doesn't stop smiling all day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title: "Cannonball" by Cannonball Adderley.
> 
> Me doing "research" for this fic: ok so here's Vax's entire lineup of repertoire, based entirely on things that either I or someone I know has played.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from: "Aint' Misbehavin'", made famous by Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong.
> 
> Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5OqOg1GGnFZrm09RiYtynS
> 
> If you think about it, Vox Machina is an EXCELLENT name for a jazz band.
> 
> Come find me at owlaholic68.tumblr.com if you want to learn all about how badly I project onto fictional characters...


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